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Ivey Faculty & Research

Jane M. Howell

Professor, Organizational Behaviour

  • J. Allyn Taylor & Arthur H. Mingay Chair in Leadership

Education

  • BA, UBC
  • MA, UWO
  • PhD, UBC

Contact Information

Profile

Jane Howell is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Richard Ivey School of Business and holds the J. Allyn Taylor & Arthur H. Mingay Chair in Leadership. Professor Howell earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration and B.A. in Psychology from The University of British Columbia, and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from The University of Western Ontario. Prior to joining the Ivey faculty in 1984, Jane worked with the B.C. Justice Institute where she trained police officers in domestic violence intervention and conflict resolution. After dealing with volatile situations, Jane moved to the safer corporate environment of the Toronto Dominion Bank where she worked in Human Resources for two years.

In 1998 Professor Howell received the University's Edward G. Pleva Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation, and in 2007 was presented with the Dean Carol Stephenson Excellence in Executive MBA Teaching Award. She teaches leadership and change in Ivey's Executive MBA (Hong Kong and Toronto), and Ph.D. programs, as well as custom executive development programs. Jane has written over 60 cases related to mergers and acquisitions, high performing organizations, leadership, teams, and coaching.

Jane has developed and delivered custom executive development programs on leadership, change, teams, and coaching, for companies in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa including, most recently, BMO Financial Group, BMO China, Mattel Asia, J.D. Irving, Aecon, Esquel Enterprise Ltd., Petro-Canada,  Maple Leaf Foods, John Squire and Sons, and 3M Canada. Jane is also an executive coach, and has consulted and led executive retreats with many enterprises such as London Life, J.D. Irving, Royal Bank Financial Group, and Spar Aerospace.

Jane's research interests since the early 1980s have included high performing leaders, teams, and organizations, and champions of innovation. She has published over 50 journal articles and book chapters on these topics and have received international awards for her work. She is currently involved in three multi-year research projects: leading during crisis and adversity; assessing global leadership practices; and accelerating new product development. Jane has served on the editorial board of The Leadership Quarterly since 1993, and is a reviewer for several journals in Organizational Behavior.

From 1998 to 2001, Jane was Associate Dean, Faculty Development and member of the Ivey Executive Committee and the Ivey Advisory Board. She has also served as a board member for The National Centre for Management Research and Development and The Original Kids Theatre Company.

Teaching

  • Leadership (Executive MBA and MBA programs)
  • Leading Change (Executive MBA program)
  • Managing People for Exceptional Performance (MBA and HBA programs)
  • Ph.D. Seminar in Individual Behavior (Ph.D. program)

Selected Publications

  • Wang, X., & Howell, J.M., 2012, A Multilevel Study of Transformational Leadership, Identification, and Follower Outcomes, Leadership Quarterly, forthcoming.
  • Wang, X., & Howell, J.M, 2010, Exploring the Dual-Level Effects of Transformational Leadership on Followers, Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(6), 1134-1144.
  • Boies, K., & Howell, J.M. (2009). Leading military teams to think and feel: Exploring the relations between leadership, soldiers' cognitive and affective processes, team trust, and performance. Military Psychology, 21(2), 216-232.
  • Boies, K., & Howell, J.M. (2006). Leader-member exchange in teams: An examination of the interaction between relationship differentiation and mean LMX in explaining team-level outcomes. Leadership Quarterly, 17(3), 246-257.
  • Howell, J. M., & Shea, C.M. (2006). Effects of champion behavior, tem potency, and external communication activities on predicting team performance. Group and Organization Management, 31, 180-211.
  • Howell, J.M. (2005). The right stuff: Identifying and developing effective champions of innovation. Academy of Management Executive, 19, 108-119.
  • Howell, J.M., Neufeld, D., & Avolio, B.J. (2005). Examining the relationship of leadership and physical distance with business unit performance. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 273-285.
  • Howell, J.M., Shea, C.M., & Higgins, C.A. (2005). Champions of product innovations: Defining, developing and validating a measure of champion behavior. Journal of Business Venturing, 20, 641-661.
  • Howell, J.M., & Shamir, B. (2005). The role of followers in the charismatic leadership process: Relationships and their consequences. Academy of Management Review, 30, 96-112.
  • Howell, J.M., Boies, K. (2004). Champions of technological innovation: The influence of contextual knowledge, role orientation, idea generation and idea promotion on champion emergence. Leadership Quarterly, 15, 123-143.
  • Howell, J.M., & Shea, C.M. (2001). Individual differences, environmental scanning, innovation framing and champion behavior: Key predictors of project performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 18(1), 15-27.
  • Shea, C.M., & Howell, J.M. (2000). Efficacy-performance spirals: An empirical test. Journal of Management, 26(4), 791-812.
  • Shea, C.M., & Howell, J.M. (1999). Charismatic leadership and task feedback: A laboratory study of their effects on self-efficacy and performance. Leadership Quarterly, 10(3), 375-396.
  • Shamir, B., & Howell, J.M. (1999). Organizational and contextual influences on the emergence and effectiveness of charismatic leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 10(2), 257-283.
  • Howell, J.M., & Hall-Merenda, K. (1999). The ties that bind: The impact of leader-member exchange, transformational and transactional leadership, and distance on predicting follower performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 680-694.
  • Avolio, B.J., Howell, J.M., & Sosik, J.J. (1999). A funny thing happened on the way to the bottom line: Humor as a moderator of leadership style effects. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 219-227. (Also appears as a Research Brief in the Academy of Management Executive, 1999, 13, 103-104).
  • Howell, J.M., & Avolio, B.J. (1993). Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, locus of control, and support for innovation: Key predictors of business unit performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 891-902.
  • House, R.J., & Howell, J.M. (1992). Personality and charismatic leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 3, 81-108.
  • Howell, J.M., & Avolio, B.J. (1992). The ethics of charismatic leadership: Submission or liberation? Academy of Management Executive, 6, 43-54.
  • Thompson, R.L., Higgins, C.A., & Howell, J.M. (1991). Personal computing: Toward a conceptual model of utilization. MIS Quarterly, 15, 125-143.
  • Howell, J.M., & Higgins, C.A. (1990). Champions of technological innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 317-341.
  • Howell, J.M., & Higgins, C.A. (1990). Champions of change: Identifying, understanding, and supporting champions of technological innovations. Organizational Dynamics, 19, 40-55.

Research/Course Development

  • Leadership
  • Followership
  • Champions of Innovations
  • Teams
  • Change

Experience

  • Professor of Organizational Behavior, Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario (2001-present)
  • Associate Dean, Faculty Development, Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario (1998-2001)
  • Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior, Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario (1993-2000)
  • Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, (1984-1992)
  • Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Management Studies, The University of Toronto (1988-1989)

Expertise

  • Leadership
  • Innovation
  • Change
  • Champions
  • Teams
 

Research Links

  • Research Publications
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